I love words… imagine that, a songwriter who loves words.  Having grown up in New Mexico I’ve also had a life-long admiration of the Navajo culture, and I found a Navajo word that just knocks me out.  The word is hozh’q… I know, I know… it looks like a cat stepped on a computer.  It is pronounced (phonetically) hoe-shk with the accent on the first syllable.

Hozh’q, is in many ways a road map of how we should live our lives… you see, in the Navajo culture, wealth and possessions mean nothing.  They don’t care how much “stuff” you got, what matters is how you live your life… a fully conscious and participatory life.  What matters is how many times you’ve kissed your granddaughter… how many times you’ve stayed up all night to watch the sun rise.. or spent the day watching cloud formations, or saw a coyote in the wild… embracing every moment of life.. taking everything in.  So often… days, weeks, or even months go by and we just slide by with them and we miss out on so much!!!  Hozh’q reminds us not to do that.

When I was writing this song with my dear friend Wendy Waldman, we decided to put a spoken section in the middle of the song.  They’re just ideas I had that I thought would enrich my life.  And I would love it if people hearing the song were moved by them, but then I realized something even better, perhaps. The listener could substitute the things which would mean something in his of her life.

As always… I’m including a stream of the song… if you’ll just click below, you can hear it.